One reason I don't care for Civics 101 discussions, or perhaps more accurately, one reason why I don't take them too seriously, is because there is no way to win.

Let's take the Israeli/Palestinian situation as an example (1).

The truth is both peoples have been wronged extensively and both harbor an understandable amount of animosity. Truth be told, given what both groups have endured I'm surprised there hasn't been more violence. How awful it must be to grow up in a perpetual warzone surrounded by people who view you as human garbage. If day after day I had people I respected telling me race X was garbage, the cause of all my suffering, and that I should be man enough to destroy those pigs I'd like to think I'd be the kind of guy who would do exactly that. What kind of person doesn't act under those circumstances?

Any ways, what sucks about Civics 101 is that both sides can make compelling arguments. Each side can show you scars, bombed out homes, crying children, mass graves. Once the carnage has been going on long enough who can even keep track? Do we really decide based on the numbers killed? It is a trap, a tar pit, a never ending problem. Add to that the fact that we probably haven't been told the truth about any of it and it becomes hopeless. That sucks, my friends.

This is true for any issue: Health Care, Policing, Taxation, etc.
The fact is you cannot change a public policy without someone getting rich and someone else getting pinched.

This is dumb.










NOTES
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1: I'm using the situation as an example. Please don't discuss the details of the conflict here.